


That Thing

by sheroars



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: Breaking My Hiatus, F/M, Intimacy, Soft and Disgusting Really, Swearing, fluffy stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 03:28:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5481725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheroars/pseuds/sheroars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec does this thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Thing

"Hey,"  

"Hmmm?" 

"I gotta go."    

"It's early..." 

"I'll be back early then."  Ellie opened her eyes and stretched.  Alec was sitting on the edge of the bed by her hip, leaning over her on one hand.  He was bringing Daisy home for Christmas.  She didn't have a car yet but he didn't seem to mind driving a few hours to get her.  She reached up to fix a bit of hair.  He hadn't brushed it at all and he looked utterly ridiculous.  It was three in the morning and she fought a giggle.    

"Drive fast."

"Not safe?"  He teased, forehead coming down to hers briefly.  Her whole body flooded with warmth when he did that.  Always.  He left and the house was silent.  She reflected on that little move of his.      

 

~

 

 

He left Broadchurch for about six and a half months.  

Fred grew about three inches.  Tom about six or so.  

Hardy called every other Friday, much to her surprise.  He gave idle updates on his heart and work.  She told him about whatever menial policing she was doing lately.  Sometimes they commiserated about their teenagers whenever either of them felt particularly angsty.  

What Ellie didn't tell him is that she had sold her house and leased the blue chalet he left behind.  The boys slept in his old bedroom.  She fell asleep on the couch most nights.  

She didn't tell him how cold it got at night.  How lonely she was.  She certainly didn't tell him he was about the only adult she had real conversations with.  He was a disembodied voice over a cell phone.  He was quite a few awkward silences.  He was hours and hours away.  God knows where day to day.    

When she found him sitting on the front stoop one night after work she thought she might jump off the docks in embarrassment.  She could've sworn he was smirking at the flaming tinge staining her cheeks.  Fred waved eagerly from his push chair.  Tom was staying the night with a friend by some stroke of luck.  

"Hi,"  She choked out.  He nodded and began speaking before thinking better of it, waving back at Fred instead.  "Oh shut up."  

"Wha?"  She shook her head and let him in.  Fred made his way happily to the toy box shoved in the corner while Ellie poured a glass of wine and looked at him expectantly.  

"I was just passing through, tying up a loose end further down the coast."  

"Oh?"

"Had a job interview as well."  

"If you tell me what I think you're about to tell me I may actually vomit."  He flashed a brief grin and palmed the counter space between them.  

"Not here no.  DI in Randstown."  It was about an hour south of Broadchurch and quite a bit bigger from what she remembers.    

"That's even farther from Daisy isn't it?"  

"I get her over the summers now and every Christmas break."  

"That's brilliant..." Her one glass turned into three while she fed Fred and continued to talk to Alec Hardy.  In the flesh.  At the little kitchen table they used to suffer over last year.  She started crying without even realizing it.

"Miller-"  

"When did you become my only friend?"

"That's not true."  

"You're my best friend you idiot."  She and Beth would never be the same.  Her sister, her nephew...the whole damn town felt sorry for her.  It was miserable.  Every bloody thing was miserable except for him.    

"Ellie-" She pulled the sleeve of her jumper over her wrist and wiped uselessly at her cheeks.  

"You're really back?"

"Yah.  I need a good DS too.  If you know anybody looking for a job.  Fresh start maybe.  Good schools."  She nearly doubled over in her chair, wrapping her arms around herself.  Her ears were ringing.  It was too much input.  Way too much.  Alec knelt next to her chair and gripped her shoulder.  

"Did they put your pacemaker in upside down?"  

"Shut up Ellie.  Take the bloody job.  Burn this shit-hole to the ground."  She covered her eyes with her hands so she didn't have to look at him.  

Then he did the thing.  

HIs forehead butted up gently against hers.  Her body went lax and she thought about throwing up again.  

 

~  

 

Being Alec Hardy's best friend had its perks.  

She had somebody to talk to.  Yell at.  Pick up Tom after football practice.  He had a flat and she had little cottage near the ocean with the boys.  They had a hell of a view too and rolling moors.  Alec helped her repaint the shutters.  In their (now comfortable) silence she wondered why he was so decent to her.    

They were a pretty damn efficient work team.  Their new boss got them plastic Olympic medals for solving a kidnapping in less that 24 hours the same week they wrapped a murder-suicide.  That was the first week he gave her a proper hug against her will after she delivered a hell of a sleep-deprived rant on the solicitors she briefed for the marathon of court dates.

It didn't feel right till he did the forehead thing and told her to stop talking.  

She hugged him back and made him pay for fish and chips later.  

 

~

 

It took a full year for them to completely realize that they were going in circles around each other.  The first date and kiss was a source of glaring embarrassment.  She refused to touch him for a week.  But the rest had been easy.  His apartment collected dust and mail.

The first time he gave her release, mouth and fingers hot between her legs, she cried.  They'd come a long damn way after all.  How much farther could they go?

Alec put his forehead on hers.  

"I need you Ellie.  God I need you."  

The double meaning nearly broke her in half.  The jumper he wore that night took up permanent residence in her dresser.  He sold the flat awhile later.        

 

~

 

And that brings them to now.  Present day.  The end of bloody 2015.  This is their second Christmas together with all the kids.  They were sitting on the end of the third church pew, watching Fred in his sheep costume play his part in the children's nativity pageant.  He turns five in June.  Tom and Daisy are sitting in the front pew with some of their Randstown friends, snickering and taking covert photos and videos of Fred while he picked his nose over the Christ child.  

Ellie grips Alec's arm in both hands and smothers a laugh in his shoulder.  He ducks his head, less proficient in hiding his amusement.  

"Your son is going to hell."  He murmurs under the organ music and the scripture reading.  One of the shepherd boys gracefully tugged Fred's hand away.  The packed church definitely noticed.  

"We can save him a seat."  She whispers back.  He grinned, temple resting on her brow as he squeezed her thigh.  The congregation repeated the Lord's prayer.  

Warmth flooded Ellie Miller's body and soul.  

 

~

 

"Jesus fucking Christ,"  He grinned into her neck as hey both came down from the peak.  She sat back on his thighs, still shaking with exertion as he kissed her hungrily.  He pressed her backwards onto their bed, kissing her forehead before cleaning them both up.  She put on black panties and one of his tee shirts.  He hurried into some flannel sleep pants and cranked the heat up on the thermostat in their room before checking the space heaters in all the rooms with the sleeping kids.  

They were all knocked out, thank God.  

Ellie yawned profusely while arranging the presents under the tree and taking a bite out of one of Santa's cookies.  Alec tsked at her and she giggled before following him upstairs.  

She lay on her side facing him after he flopped back on his stomach with a groan.  She ran a few fingers through his hopeless hair.  

"I feel so happy right now it's disgusting."  She mumbled.  

"I can't complain."  He shrugged. She pinched his arm.  He winced and threw it over her waist, dragging her in closer.  He bumped his forehead up against hers, forcing eye contact until she shut them and kissed him.  

"This is a bit weird." She sighed.    

"What is?"  

"I'm about to ask you to marry me."  

"Glad we're on the same page then."  She burst into nervous laughter and covered her face with her hands.

"You're gonna give me a headache Alec Hardy.  Such a headache."   

He did the forehead thing again, painfully sweet.  She finally put a finger on the feeling it gave her.  Safe.  Ever since the beginning.  Safe safe safe.    

"I'm not gonna pretend you're not a pain in my neck Miller, but I've become rather accustomed to this."  

"Ever the romantic you are...I can't believe this."   

"Wha?"  She smiled at him.  

"Lucy was right.  We're the only two arseholes in the world for-"

"Shut up Miller." He smiled back and pushed up on an elbow to turn off the lamp,"-and stop bringing up your sister in bed."         

 

                     

**Author's Note:**

> I've been away forever thanks to my first term of college but I'm on break and ready to write some short stuffs to pass the time. Cheers! xoxo


End file.
